HookEm

Yes, we have enough size if you just look at our team's measurables. But you need to look more critically at our big man situation: Onyema was terrible last year. Out of place on defense, not a great rebounder, worthless on offense. He can't get more than 5 min a game without massive improvement Codie is a freshman. Dude is 6'9, 200. He is not ready to bang in the SEC. Unless he surprises everyone, he also shouldn't get more than 5-10 min a game. Max. Shedrick only played 17 min last year and seems to always be hurt. He has height, but he isn't physical - and we don't have a physical power forward to cover his deficiencies. Regardless, we can't play him more than ~22 min a game. And if Shedrick goes down? Holy hell we are screwed. So unless you think we should be playing Jayson Kent at center, we HAVE to get another big. The quality of that big will determine how well we do next year. We don't necessarily have to get a 7 footer. But we desperately need a physical big who can bang when needed.

Yes. At this point, a guy who was all league and all defense would be a huge win. There aren't many of those types left. I mean, almost none.

I have no idea if any of these guys are options, but here are the remaining in the portal who are power forwards or centers and top-500 according to 24-7. That's it. That is the whole list. Power Forwards: Coleman Hawkins, Illinois - 6'10, 230 - #24 - 12.7 PTS, 6.7 TRB Trevon Brazile, Arkansas - 6'10, 220 - #41 - 8.6 PTS, 5.9 TRB DJ Burns, Youngstown St - 6'7, 220 - #154 - 13.1 PTS, 11.0 TRB - 2nd team Horizon, All Defense Matt Bewley, Chicago St - 6'9, 225 - #189 - Currently ineligible Mowot Mag, Rutgers - 6'7, 215 - #207 - 9.1 PTS, 3.8 TRB Ryan Bewley, Chicago St - 6'9, 210 - #240 - Currently ineligible Centers: Baba Miller, Florida St - 6'11, 204 - #131 - 7.9 PTS, 4.9 TRB Ugonna Onyenso, Kentucku - 7'0, 233 - #180 - 3.6 PTS, 4.8 TRB Max Allen, Marist - 6'9, 255 - #338 - 11.4 PTS, 3.8 TRB - 2nd Team MAAC Duncan Powell, Sac St - 6'8, 220 - #411 - 12.1 PTS, 7.0 TRB - Went to Desoto High School Emmanuel Okorafor, Louisville - 6'9, 220 - #444 - 2.4 PTS, 2.2 TRB Enoch Boakye, Fresno St - 6'11, 250 - #471 - 7.5 PTS, 7.7 TRB Pretty slim pickings. At this point some of the dudes above aren't much better than Onyema. What a shit show. I would try to get DJ Burns since he is a grown assed man at this point and could be plug and play at Power Forward. Then maybe Duncan Powell since he has some state of Texas connections. But man, this isn't good.

This is terrible news. Oh well, who is our next best option?

They are also exactly the same height at 6’9. And about the same weight at 210/220.

Hahaha WTF. I have been thinking they were brothers all along. Well never mind then. I guess I got confused because Obi has a younger brother Jacob and I must have assumed that is JT.

We are going to regret not paying Toppin. He very well might be the best player on our team if we signed him, and he would make us so much more dangerous. If we had him we could go big with him and Shedrick. Or we could go small and he could play center. He is a great rebounder, leading the MWC in both offensive and total rebounds. He also led the MWC in blocks. He actually had better stats IMO than his brother as a freshman. Obi then went on to win the Wooden and Naismith awards as a sophomore. Even if JT doesn't improve at all, he would be a crucial piece. If he makes a similar jump to his brother, we could be looking at a Final Four caliber team.

I am sure it has gotten more selective, but part of that selection process is a HEAVY bias toward legacy applicants. My daughter has zero connection to aggy (thankfully) and didn't even get into Team Blinn, despite being ~ top 12% from a highly regarded HS with a 1290 SAT. My son was about the same (maybe a little worse actually) and got into UT, but did not get accepted to aggy. I attribute this to an excellent essay. Meanwhile they both have a number of friends who got accepted with significantly worse academic and extracurricular achievements with the only difference being that they have aggy family. He is still trying to figure out his direction. He has loved his geology classes so far, but hasn't made exceptional grades on them. If you go to UT Jackson School, does it help your chances getting into their graduate program?

Yeah we went up to visit in the fall and she was sold. It was an absolutely brilliant fall day with the leaves turning and the air crisp. We never get days quite like that in the Austin area. I'm kind of excited to see what Calapari does with their basketball program. It sounds like he is getting all the resources he needs, and he can certainly recruit. They could be a fun team to follow during her four years up there. Right now Arkansas isn't ranked very well academically... #178 on US News. About like Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU, Okie State, and K-State. But I can see that changing in the coming years. There are a TON of Dallas kids that can't get into UT or A&M... or that miss out on their major. Kids in the 8%-12% range in their class. These kids are applying to Arkansas in droves, especially since the Oklahoma and Louisiana schools don't offer tuition matching. The applications are up so much so that they are probably going to raise the standard for full in-state tuition for the Texas folks. As UT and A&M keep getting more selective, so will Arkansas, and their rankings will go up accordingly. JMHO.

That is crazy because Davion Mitchell was an absolutely awesome NCAA player. He was one of the most aggressive lock down perimeter defenders I have seen. I thought he was going to do great in the NBA. I still think he might do ok if he got out of Sacramento. I wish San Antonio would trade for him.

My daughter is going to Arkansas in the fall. She was borderline at UT and got CAP. Decided instead to go up there and enjoy the full college experience and great smaller town vibe. She is going to double major in Finance and Supply Chain. Arkansas has a top-3 supply chain program in the country, I'm sure aided by their close working with Walmart and the many other businesses up there. My son is at UT studying geology. In some ways I think my daughter will get the better college experience. All-in, the price will be about the same for both of them. Hit me up on DM if you want more info on Arkansas. It is a great option if you want in-state prices and big college feel, but don't want to go Aggy or Red Raider.

Oof this Toppin news is really bad. He is exactly what we need. I really don't want more than about 20 minutes of Shedrick and 5 minutes of Onyema. Even better would be 15 minutes of Shedrick and 0 minutes of Onyema. What other bigs are out there?

I only cite his FG% as a plus to show that he plays within his strengths. He is a rim runner and dunker, nothing more at this stage. And I never used his FG% to claim otherwise. It is good to have Derka back. This thread was getting stale.

Some other good ones: Michael B Jordan (37) - Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, Just Mercy Daniel Kaluuya (35) - Get Out, Nope, Judas & Black Messiah Austin Butler (33) - Elvis, Dune 2 Chris Hemsworth (40) - Thor, Extraction, Rush, Cabin in the Woods Taron Egerton (35) - Rocketman, Kingsmen, Eddie the Eagle

Dillon Mitchell was our small ball power forward for the vast majority of his minutes. He got very few minutes at the 3 over the last two years. If you think of him as a Rodman type forward (granted he isn't nearly that good) who rebounds and defends 3 positions, he is has a lot of value. Obviously J'Covan Brown is a better player, but he isn't exactly the type of player I'm talking about as he contributed in a lot of areas (and scored 20 PPG). That said, when Brown was our primary weapon in 2012, we finished the season as a damn 11 seed and lost in the first round. So yeah, maybe having a ball hog leading scorer who shoots 41% FG isn't the best recipe for success. Jordan Hamilton was also a decent defender by the time he graduated and also got almost 8 board per game. I mean, he was an All American for goodness sake. That's not the "gunner" type of player I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Sheldon McClellans of the world who led our team at 13.8 PPG on 38% shooting. Give me Dillon Mitchell all day every day over players like that. Oh well. He gon.

I just think people overweight scoring the basketball when judging a player. Lets say you have a guy averaging 18 PPG, on 43% FG, while committing over 3 TOs a game and the guy refuses to play a lick of defense or rebound. People will call him a "gunner" and overlook the fact that he is one dimensional, and probably a net negative. Then you have a guy like Mitchell, who is #2 in the conference in rebounding, #9 in FG%, who plays borderline all-conference defense, and barely turns the ball over. This guy is considered a "role player" and is viewed to be inferior to the other player. Mitchell will win you more than the other guy. And I'm not saying he doesn't have limitations. I'm just saying we weigh offensive limitations way way more than defensive limitations. And even on offense, he plays within his game. He was 4th on the team in scoring with pretty solid efficiency.

I get your point, but Dillon Mitchell had a significantly better sophomore year than any of those dudes. He will likely lead the Big 12 in rebounding next year. Nobody should consider that a spare, and it really stretches the definition of role player. This is why it is best for all parties for him to move on. He will likely never hit expectations here (I.e. play like a top-5 recruit). But he is already a solid role player at a minimum with two years to improve, and huge athletic upside. As an aside, Gary Johnson was 3rd team All Big 12 as a senior. And Dogus Balbay was Big 12 DPOY. At their peak they were more than role players, even though they weren’t stars. Was Ben Wallace a role player just because he averaged like 10 ppg and couldn’t shoot free throws?

That may be true on offense, but he was 2nd in the Big 12 in rebounding and his defense on the SEC POY Dalton Knect showed what he is capable of on that end (holding him to 27% from the field and 3 TOs). And with that, I will end my Dillon Mitchell fanboi posts. Best of luck to him.

One thing I appreciated about Mitchell is that he didn't try to play outside his skill set. We didn't see him jack up tons of 3s at a 25% clip. Heck, he only shot 8 all year (granted he didn't make one, lol). And he never really tried to "get his", despite being an NBA hopeful and very highly recruited prospect. Last year he did double his scoring output and improved from 40% FT in 2023 to 54% last year out of conference and then to 69% in conference. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him with a decent midrange game next year and with his free throws up in the mid 70s. And if he stays for another year after that, maybe he will eventually be able to hit a few 3s.

Good for Mitchell. Glad he's going to Cinci. I didn't want to have to play him if he went to Auburn. I've been pretty consistent in thinking this is a bigger loss than most. He was really solid on defense and on the glass last year, and he is still young and improving. If we miss out on Toppin, I'm not sure we are going to replace him with someone better.

A turn-row is a strip of land / dirt road at the edge of a field where the tractor turns around. It is off the main road and sometimes has trees around it. Since it is away from any road (and at night), the odds of anyone driving on it are basically zero.

In high school, the ability to get in your car, get your girlfriend and find a turn-row out in the country, where you have zero risk of being disturbed by anyone, and where the stars stretch to the horizon... well, that is a pretty fun Friday night. But I suppose the same could be many small towns. I guess that is a topic for another thread.

Smells like money. I lived northeast of town and I never got the stench. My wife lived west of town and it would sometimes get bad. But they also had a big variety of animals (cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens) and so it never exactly smelled like a hospital anyway. I did enjoy being so close to New Mexico. The mountains were less than 3 hours away if you drove fast.

I'm really hoping that we can sign JT Toppin. Which is a better pair of bigs in a smaller closing lineup: 2024 Dillon Mitchell - 6'8, 205 - 9.6 PTS, 7.5 TRB, 1.0 STL, 0.9 BLK, 58.5 FG%, 0.0 3P%, 59.8 FT%, 1.7 PF Dylan Disu ---- 6'9, 225 - 15.5 PTS, 5.0 TRB, 1.1 STL, 0.9 BLK, 46.5 FG%, 45.1 3P%, 81.2 FT%, 3.4 PF 2025 Jayson Kent - 6'8, 205 - 13.5 PTS, 8.1 TRB, 0.7 STL, 0.5 BLK, 63.9 FG%, 36.6 3P%, 83.7 FT%, 2.6 PF JT Toppin ---- 6'9, 210 - 12.4 PTS, 9.1 TRB, 1.1 STL, 1.9 BLK, 65.5 FG%, 34.4 3P%, 56.5 FG%, 2.6 PF Even though Disu was 1st Team All-Big 12, the team wasn't constructed very well to take advantage of his strengths and minimize his weaknesses. We tended to get abused by more physical teams, especially on the glass. Disu was also constantly in foul trouble, which took him out of the game at critical moments. Kent and Toppin are a much better rebounding duo. They can also BOTH knock down shots from outside the paint, so it should help spacing. We have to sign Toppin. Like... REALLY have to sign this guy.

Agree. Alabama and Auburn could both be top-10 teams when they come to Austin. A&M could easily be top-25 and will be a must win given how annoying they are.